"Major western brands pay Indian garment workers 11p an hour", 1 February 2019

... Research by the University of California found that women and girls from the most marginalised communities toiled for as little as 15 cents (11p) an hour in homes across India. Child labour and forced labour were rife and wages regularly suppressed.

The study is thought to be the most comprehensive assessment of conditions facing home-based garment workers, whose work often involves applying the final touches to a garment, including embroidery, tasseling, beadwork and buttons.

“Every major brand, every boutique retailer and everyone in between who sources garments form India is touched by this issue,” said Siddharth Kara, the report’s author...

Roughly one in five home-based garment workers in India are aged 17 and under, according to the study, which draws on interviews with 1,452 workers. The youngest individual interviewed was 10 years old, although researchers witnessed dozens of younger children....Two-thirds of child workers in the north were also out of school.

... None belonged to a trade union or had a written contract, leaving them with no way of seeking redress for unfair or abusive treatment.

Almost all workers – 99.2% – were subject to conditions of forced labour under Indian law, which means they did not receive the state-stipulated minimum wage. In most cases, workers received only a tenth of the minimum wage.

Payments were often late, with many workers reporting that they had been penalised for not completing hefty orders on time...

While the report does not name brands specifically, the vast majority of home-based workers, 85%, said they worked exclusively in supply chains for clothing shipped to the US or EU...